Chronicles of a Citizen
by Eiyuu Kou
Summary: The story of a civilian's quest to find hope in a post-apocalyptic world. Based off of the game Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin.


Chronicles of a Citizen

Based off of the game Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

_All rights belong to the developer, Intelligent Systems and the publisher, Nintendo_

**I**

When the meteors struck, I was planning to go on a trip to the western states of Rubinelle. These states had been a goal of mine to go to for some time. Progress there had been made in communications and new businesses arose. I was hired for a job that was vital to installing a network of radars to help guide aircraft when the region's infamous fog rolled in. As I was leaving my house all hell broke loose.

Outside seemed to be hotter than usual, something many people noticed and were annoyed by. Suddenly the earth shook with a force that would have measured around 8.0 on the Richter scale. There was no faults near-by. Many foundations were shaken, including the one under my home. Water pipes broke and the street was beginning to fill with water. We were all fortunate that the propane lines were shut-off for an annual maintenance. All of us were distracted by the tremors when a little girl had pointed up to the sky.

The sky to the west was lit-up in an inferno. It seemed to be a very long distance away but we could all see a blaze that seemed to reach for the heavens. I then saw fourteen fireballs fall out of the sky to the north and south, something nobody should see. We could all hear the earth crumbling. The tremors had started up again and then we all saw a bright flash of light, so powerful it dimmed the sun, to the northeast. We all unanimously knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong. We went into a panic and seeked shelter. We were under attack. What we didn't know, however, was that it wasn't just us.

Through the chaos, a military family had leaded a small group of people to a bomb shelter. It was originally designed for the early years of the Great War between Rubinelle and Lazarius. Designed to survive a nuclear holocaust, it was finished state-of-the-art twenty years earlier. We would survive our own demise if it happened here. It did.

I was the last person to enter the shelter and the blast door had been sealed shut by the father of our hosts. Instantly after the job was done, we the ground shook with such a tremendous force that it forced us all off our feet. The shaking had lasted for several minutes and by the end of it we were under anything that could shield us from a collapsing roof. Soon it was over. I soon heard gasps as people looked towards the door. The blast door had been obliterated.

It was by pure chance that the father had escaped from where he was standing, right next to the door, by a tremor that flung him across the room where he hit the concrete floor. Hard. Fortunately he only had minor injuries. Unfortunately, most of us did not think we were going to survive the radiation exposure regardless. Only a few people noticed that the room's radiation meters did not pick-up any traces of harmful radiation.

Panic had soon slowed down to a crawl as people began to notice the meters. Many feared that the earthquake had damaged the meter so badly, it could not work. This was virtually impossible, however, due to the design of the surrounding bunker. Many people, seeing how the situation inside was safe, began to look at the destruction outside. This was against the wishes of the father, whom was helped up off the floor, but nothing could feasibly hold them back.

Gasps had filled the somewhat large room. Out of curiosity I went outside to look at the damage. Pushing my way to the front of the crowd I saw what had happened. A blistering heat was pushing on my body as though I was standing next to a furnace's open fire. When I managed to open my eyes the entire city had been obliterated. Where once stood tracts of houses was now wasteland, no building standing in sight. Where once stood towers and skyscrapers was now incomplete shells of steel rods.

I finally saw what caused it all. Or rather what mark it left on the land. A smoldering crater with a diameter of what seemed to have been miles was seen from what I later found out around 30 miles away. Blazes spouted from the giant hole in the ground occasionally and despite the extreme, visible heat coming from it, I could see enough to know this was no nuclear strike. This was the end of the world. The Days of Ruin.

**II**

After a second blast door was shut, the heat continued for about three days. The room itself was cool from a ventilation system but we could often feel heat through the blast door. It was soon, however, that we began to run low on supplies. The bunker had been designed for the president if he happened to visit the city and a nuclear war broke out. We were all hoping he was in the capital working out a way to help us all. He was, in reality, wiped out by one of the meteors.

Many of us were concerned that we would soon run out of supplies and starve to death. No one would dare to go out in the heat as it seemed to grow hotter each day. Some panicked. The third day was when some of the survivors couldn't stand the cramped living conditions any longer. Many of us tried to hold them back from opening the blast door, fearing the heat would kill us all. There wasn't much of us, however, so they broke through. The door was opened.

It wasn't quite what we expected though. The heat…it seemed to be gone. Instead we were greeted by darkness. We knew for sure it was dusk but it shouldn't have been so dark so soon. The air smelt of ashes and death. Nothing living was around for miles. We had to find supplies or the group would be put into another frenzy and leave. They wouldn't have lasted long out there.

After a short meeting after closing the blast door to keep the bad air out, we decided that the men would look for supplies in the morning as the women and children would stay inside. There were just enough gas masks for all of us. It was a restless night. Many people wanted to go outside, away from the bunker they have grown to dread. There was whispering throughout the concrete walls. Not many of us managed to get any sleep except for the younger children, oblivious to what the world had become.

Dawn soon broke but we waited an extra hour for when we looked outside, it was still terribly dark. When we finally began our search, many of us realized the sun was gone. Instead of feeling warm sunlight, we felt a chill. Ashes were falling gracefully to the ground. The ground when stepped on was like walking through a valley covered with snow. Many of the men had each of their own destinations. Some, including me, wanted to see if by some miracle their house was still standing. Others, knowing that finding their home would be fruitless, began searching for a rumored shelter of food and water.

Many of the men were from my neighborhood, at the base of the hill where the bunker was located. When those of us curious to see who's home was still standing, we were all too exhausted to react to the wasteland that was once where an entire city once was. The other group's search, however, was more fruitful. Minus the fruit.

They had discovered more survivors. It was a significantly smaller group than what we had but they were also low on supplies. Even if both of our caches were combined, there wouldn't be enough to serve everybody a full meal. Despite this, they did not have as much food as we did. Some had considered killing the survivors in the bunker and taking the food for themselves. Those who wished to do so held in a silent agreement. The other men would not tolerate such behavior, as they knew. And even then what would they kill with? Anything that could be used as a weapon outside was demolished by the meteor.

Even though the discovered survivors were relieved to see they weren't the only people left on the face of the earth, they did not trust the group. When they heard of the other survivors, however, the survivors decided to combine both of our and their supplies. Fortunately they had their own masks so they could travel back with us. After my group and the other group met up, we headed back up the hill. Those without supplies to carry up helped carry the smaller group's children.

**III**

Soon another day had passed. It ended up that while we were going back up the hill, we found a third bunker, filled with food, water, and even some luxuries. None of us had ever expected there to be so many bunkers in just one area, not even the family that led us to safety that fateful day. The father evidently did not have enough clearance to be told where the third bunker was. He, however, did know of the second bunker as we later found out. He didn't think much of it however, as there were rumors that the bunker was decreed unsafe and henceforth abandoned. This rumor was likely started by officers who wanted to keep the functioning bunker 'secret'. Regardless another day had passed. The combined group was quite content with the goods that we had discovered.

Many days were uneventful, as many of us were bored and were essentially beating sticks. Some people were fortunate enough to have had brought a book with them but soon books were swapped as entire novels were read. Occasionally somebody would be let outside to look at the devastation from a fifty-foot radius around the entrance. Many days were often dull. I spent my time imagining a world where the meteors had never struck.

Soon it was day seven. Supplies by then were beginning to run low again and many people grew weary of sleeping on the floor. Our group consisted of a total of 47 people, 14 of whom were children. There were only about 20 beds. Each child got their own bed and the elderly filled up the rest. Those who did not get a bed ended up sleeping on the concrete floor. Some of the luxuries found a few days before included sleeping bags so things were not as bad as it seemed. Still, I noticed a silent unrest even among our saviors.

Day eight was the first time something good happened in a long time. The ashes stopped falling. This meant we no longer needed out masks so we could all go outside. It was nice to have a fresh breath of air after being confined in a single room for so long. Many of the people wanted to leave now that it was safe. Later we would learn it was hardly safe.

Midday we had a meeting. In reality it was more of a vote than a discussion. Unanimously we all voted to leave our shelter and search for more survivors. We would then begin to rebuild society. Of course we would bring our supplies. There were enough supplies for three more days. We needed to find a way to carry it all, though. It was by pure chance that one of the children wandered off and found ANOTHER bunker. This time it was filled with automobiles. There were enough trucks in there for all of us and all of our supplies. We were going to form a caravan.

As the last of the supplies were being loaded-up I began to ponder the purpose of the bunkers. Did God place them there so that we would all survive? Was it by pure chance? I was in disbelief but the answer lied in the city's political importance as explained many months from then. Many engineers that worked for the government lived in the city. They were working on a secret project sponsored by a weapons supplier by the name of Intelligent Defense Systems. It was stored deep underground and was called a Talon Gun. Prototype, of course, but we never figured that our country was planning to turn our city into a battle zone.

Rubinelle's focus was not on the skies, however, but rather through spies that would report if a nuclear strike was to occur from Lazarius. Our demise did not come from man but from the heavens, rendering the early warning useless. The engineers were wiped-out. I could never expect there to be such a conspiracy but it was soldiers that worked for the government that told me what was really going on. More specifically the girl who told our group was named Isabella.

After finishing pondering about what was the cause, oblivious to what really was happening before the meteors struck, I waited in a line to get in the trucks. After everything was loaded up, we left. The trucks drove down a paved slope that would normally be hidden in the vegetation but it was no longer there. When we got on the main roads, there was debris everywhere. Often times the trucks would have to navigate around giant pieces of stone and metal in a single-file line.

The men who were driving the trucks knew the city well. Some of them were friends of mine. One of my friends was driving the truck I was on. I asked him where we were going

"Well, seeing how the city is now a giant wasteland, we are going to take surface roads to the countryside and see if the situation is any better out there," he explained.

"Why not take the freeways," I asked.

"Quite simply, they probably collapsed from the heat and flying chunks of stone. Ah, here is a perfect example," he said as directing my attention toward what used to be Interstate 14.

The only sign there was ever a freeway there were the standing columns built with reinforced steel. Where the road once was now space and below there were chunks of asphalt everywhere. I realized that the situation, as my friend had said, was likely to be the case for the remaining freeways. I then noticed the light breeze on my face.


End file.
